A Comparison of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Semi Professional and Amateur Athletes

In the psychology of sport, considering the different effects of regular exercise on personality and psychology are very important. The aim of the present study was to compare the cognitive emotion regulation and its nine components between semi‑professional and amateur athletes. The present study is a causal-comparative study. The population of this study included 100 people (50 semi-professional athletes and 50 amateur athletes) employed in a military medical hospital. These athletes who were chosen by an accidental random sampling method, completed the Granefski and Kraaij (2006) Cognitive Emotion Regulation questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS 17. The result in this study showed that there is a meaningful difference between non-professional athletes and amateurs in regards to cognitive emotion regulations (p<0/005).This means that semi- professional athletes have a more adapted cognitive emotion regulation compared to amateur athletes. The results of this study show that regular exercise can effect various aspects of a person’s personality and psychology such as cognitive emotion regulation.